UCL application to sponsor Academy school successful

UCL has today received confirmation from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) that its application to sponsor an Academy school in the London Borough of Camden has been successful.

The comprehensive, non-selective school is scheduled to open in 2011, and will have places for over 1,000 local schoolchildren. These pupils will benefit from a tailored programme of master-classes, seminars and summer schools given by UCL staff and supported by UCL students, and will have access to UCL’s world class facilities, including its laboratories and libraries.

The school will have specialisms in mathematics and science, and an emphasis on languages across the curriculum. In addition, UCL will be working with the staff of the Academy to explore new approaches to the curriculum, including models for an extended day and cross-curricular learning, supported by input from UCL’s academics and student volunteers in mentoring roles.

Key to UCL’s vision for the school is a commitment to high academic and personal standards for all pupils of all abilities, and the creation of an environment which produces students who are critical and creative thinkers, with a strong sense of their responsibilities to the local and global communities and a genuine sensitivity to cultural difference.

The Academy will have in place a 14-19 programme that offers both a balanced choice (including access to vocational diplomas) and specialist study. UCL will be working with Camden and with local schools on the development of 14-19 diploma lines.

Provost and President of UCL, Professor Malcolm Grant, said: “We are delighted that UCL’s bid to sponsor an Academy in Camden has been approved by government. UCL is keen to make a real and lasting contribution to education in Camden, and a link between a world-class university and an inner city school offers us a real opportunity to achieve this ambition.”

Vice-Provost Professor Michael Worton added: “Our academics and students are already working extremely productively with local schools, and the Academy will allow us to focus and build on this work in a really exciting way. Like UCL, the Academy will have a global vision and strong aspirations; it will also have a special emphasis on developing skills and personal qualities through a broad curriculum which will enable its students of all abilities and aptitudes to benefit to the maximum from their secondary education.”

Following DCSF confirmation that funding has been released for the Academy project, UCL will now begin work in partnership with Camden officers on the development of its proposals and the design for the new school.